Coro: Opening up of interstate travel and sundry issues…Edo: Like Naboth,like Obaseki - Ik Muo, PhD.

A lot is happening on the coro front. The first and the greatest news this week is  the open-up on interstate travels. I can imagine all of us rushing out into the highways like these chickens who have just been let off their pen! Most Nigerians, especially transporters and allied businesses ( including area boys) are rejoicing; they have lost about N200bn due to the interstate lockup. However the security agents are mournful because their collective ATM has been disennebled.  I have seen and or spoken to those who travelled, some regularly, during the interstate lockdown. It is just a matter of cash. Premium Times (1/6/20) did some undercover operations  on the matter and reported what they saw as an extortation bazaar, with security agents and state officials as the auctioneers. The Cable (25/5/20) did theirs and reported that with N16500, one could convenniently travel from Lagos to Abuja (what are you going to do at Abuja that warrants such a huge investment on bribery?).

Extortion bazzar!

So, the security agents are sad but as Osadebe would say, Osondi-Owendi! ( it is natural for some to be happy while others are sad).

 So how do Nigerians react to this ‘good’ news. Those of us who are ‘village men’ are glad that we should touch base with our folks at home. Those whose residences and offices are in different states( like Lagos-Ogun; Abuja-Nassarawa) are glad that they they can now do their bit in peace and save all the money  and harrowing stress associated with illegal interstate operations. But people are worried about the implications in an environment where people do not believe that coro is real, lack personal discipline and believe that God would do it for them. The pictures that emerged of  people despeartely struggling for food at the Ibadan burial last week or those struggling for bus-space at Obalande after the tumultous rains two weeks ago, show how safety-conscious we are.

@ Ajimobi’s funeral…            

@ Obalande Bus-Stop

But the government has little choice; given the nature of our socio-economic environment, Nigeria CANNOT afford to lock down it’s economy. We just lack what it takes to lock down. But coro is real. A dear friend of mine just informed me that he has been coronised while  Governor Akeredolu  of Ondo state, in the midst of the political rofo-refo his deputy, has just tested positive! Governor Okowa and his wife as well as Osun State SSG, Wole Oyebamij, are also sadly down. Coro is real; Coro is in town!

 

 On 11/6/20, we examined the political dynamics of the coro-war in Kogi State; how the state awarded itself the non-covid gold medal and frontally accused the NCDC of manipulating the process to ensure that Kogi is coronalised.(Ik Muo; Kogi State & Coro: The politics of acrimony & incivility,11/6/20). Before then, the state had  announced to that it tested 111 samples ‘with testing kits sourced independently but following NCDC guidelines’, and they all turned out negative! After the stringent denial of the Kogi index case, and the mudslinging following it, everything appeared to have cooled down. But in the recent past, the Kogi State Chief Judge ( Nassir Ajanah)died at an isolation center in Abuja. An Aid to the governor and President of Kogi  Customary Court of Appeal also died. I did not see much in the press from the Kogi attack-dogs, the   Commissioners for Information  and Health but just as I was writing this, Governor Bello himself roared! He was tired of speaking through his ‘boys’. At the third day prayers for late Ajana,  the governor declared that the late jurist did not die of coro, a disease he described as artificial and  worse than banditry, Boko Haram and genocide put together;  adding that it was unfortunately  imported, propagated and forced on the people for no just cause. He ended by advising ‘his people’  to reject  the “cut and paste disease  meant create fear, panic; orchestrated to reduce and shorten their lifespans’! This is harsh and serious; and coming from a governor, damn too unfortunate. Again I ask: what is happening? Is there something that we, the ordinary people do not know? While commiserating with the families, I believe that there is no benefit in denying the obvious because facts do not seize to exist because they are denied. I also encourage the Kogi State Government to prioritise the interest of Kogites and leave politrics out of the matter.

In Anambra state, the process and acess to coro-testing remains mysterious and strenous. On the 19^th of May, it was gleefully announced that a private laboratory in the state, Accunalysis Diagnostic Centre Limited, Nnewi had been accredited by the NCDC and had begun COVID-19 testing in the state.

This was in addition to other centers awaiting NCDC certification. Last week, a good friend of mine got sick and his people were willing to undertake the coro test but it was not to be. The stories were that Anambra State does its tests at Irrua Specialist Hospital Edo State and that this is done biweekly! Irrua Specialist Hospitalin Edo State? Once every two weeks? What happened to the certified center at Nnewi and why should the tests samples be collected once in two weeks? I tried to confirm ‘what’s gwan’ from a state government official who is in a position to clarify but did not hear from him as at 1/7/20. Enugu State does its coro-tests at  Ebonyi State. It may not be as stressful as the process in Anambra state but a friend of mine told me that one needed to know people at NCDC who can then give you a free passage to the place. So, What is happening? In Lagos, there are test centers   in all the 20 ‘authentic’ local governments areas. The addresses are publicized and people are continuously encouraged to go and undertake the tests.    There are even community testing in some parts of the country. So, what is the problem? Is this a federal or a state affair?  Whatever the case and whoever is responsible, Anambra lives matter!

Other Matters:Like Naboth, like Obaseki; well, not exactly!

Even my best friend, the one I trusted completely, the one who shared my food, has turned against me. Psalm 41.9

The flurry of  events involving Obaseki, Oshiomhole, Edo State  and APC in the past two weeks will make an epic novel or a blockbuster Nollywood film. Unfortunately, I am neither Chinua Achebe nor  Kunle Afolayan. However if one cannot do a BIG thing, let him at least do a small one he can. Whether big or small, the common denominator is doing something! I have therefore decided to interrogate a minuscule of these weird, embarrassing and shameful happenings. It is shameful for our politics and politicians, for governance for our judicial system, for rule of law and for individuals involved, especially our former khaki wearing comrade.

The story of Naboth is told in 1 Kings 21:1-16.  Our people say that being a neigbgour to a big man is either a beneficial or woeful experience  unless the neighbour  is equally a big man. King Ahab wanted Naboth’s land to further expand and beautify his already expansive abode.  The King was willing to pay whatever it is worth in cash and kind but Naboth refused and his fiendish wife , Jezebel, was surprised that Ahab, a whole king could not dominate ordinary Naboth and she took it  from there and that is where  the similarity between Naboth and Obaseki arose. She wrote a letter in the kings name, directing the elders to set up an emergency religious jury, procure some area boys to manufacture charges against Naboth, judge and  condemn  him to death and get the judgment executed. They did so and the king took over the land. (Don’t underestimate the power of women or you can go and ask Mugabe in the grave or Zimbabweans about Grace!). Naboth had no chance in the whole matter. The whole thing was cooked up from above and given the power of his traducers, he was out even before the battle started.

 In this Edo political charade, Oshiomhole acted like Jezebel. Oshiomhole, whose own certificates have several gaping holes in them, set up a screening committee to  clear the APC governorship candidates, including Obaseki who worked with him for 8 years and has been governor for almost 4 years. His certificates that were excellent 4 years previously suddenly became fake! The first committee expectedly floored Obaseki mercilessly and submitted its report to another committee where Oshiohole was  in charge and within a minute, the report was ratified. And this is an issue in which Oshiohole has direct, visible interest and thus he became a judge in his own case!  And the winner is…. Eze-Iyamu; a classical situation of working from answer to question. Oshiomhole went home to dance… for destroying what he had built!

That was in bad taste. I actually wanted to make sure that  he had a good celebration and had sourced the most expensive champaign ever made, ‘Taste of Diamonds’, by Goût de Diamants,   costing $1.8m bottle ! That was the only drink worthy of such an epic celebration. Unfortunately, before the sinfully expensive drink, which bottle houses a real diamond right on its face could arrive, the tables turned so suddenly and violently and the former comrade fell from the pinnacle to the valley

 

How are the mighty fallen and despite his small size, it was a great fall.  It appears Osho  was being punished for all his political iniquities(Amos  3:2) and   he was overthrown like God mercilessly overthrew Sodom & Gomorrah. ( Amos,4:11).We all know that those who are down to earth( or close to the ground) do not do things in half measures ( if you doubt, go to Kaduna and ask). The former comrade who had declared that Obaseki  was the  back bone of his administration and best man for the job, and who called Eze-Iyamu a thie… in the market square, suddenly and bold-facedly declared that Eze-Iyamu is the only man and that Obaseki is a villain. I don’t want to go into what happened to Ahab and his foxy wife but the Bible has it that  ‘there never was anyone like Ahab for double dealing and for doing what is displeasing to God, urged by Jezebel… (1 King 21:25).  I don’t know what Oshiomhole’s wife (who has been missing in action of late) had to do with this political hocus-pocus( I speak big grammar when I am annoyed)  but in this matter, Oshiomhole has showcased his expertise in double dealing.

Actually, Psalm 41.9 quoted at the beginning can be the lamentation of Oshiohole or Obaseki,  his frenemy and nemesis. Of course, Obaseki is not a harmless, meek lamb like Naboth. Leo Sobechi( I have always savoured his political discourse) accused Oshiomhole  who had stood ‘at all times against the imposition of one mans will against the collective whim of the people’, of political trickery and administrative overkill and of demanding that political stricture be appeased and serviced ( Guardian, 21/6/20,pp28-29). Obaseki on his own path got involved on self-preservation and confrontational maneuvers,  invented imaginary enemies, deployed his troop and powers and fought like a wounded lion. He inaugurated a minority legislators, got a few ward executives to floor the National Chairman, declared a whole Oshoo,  a persona non grata in Edo state( he learnt from Amaechi and Ganduje!) and demolished the house of Oshos supporter. He also did not know that there is something called thrust.

How can Oshiomole turn around to play the godfather?  Or even dream of doing so? He who  crowned himself the nemesis of godfathers,  boasted how he politically demolished and demystified the likes of Anenih, Dokpesi and Igbinedion,  and banished them from the polity? He who swore the step on toes and if necessary chop off those toes in the larger public interest.   He who had promised NEVER to distract or interfere with whoever governs afterwards’! In an interview in 2016, he declared ‘As I speak, all of them are down and I am the only one standing’.   So, even though he had left office, he still carried on as if he were the only one STANDING thereby attempting to turn himself into a puppeteer and remote control!  In a democracy and particularly in a Nigerian democracy?

And look at the shame of the Nigerian party -politics. The PDP, which spent the last four years attacking Obaseki, mostly maliciously, exposing his ‘incompetence’ will now raise his hand and beat drums for him! And APC which had been saying ‘nothing do you’ to Obaseki will now  move to the other side of the field and   tell the people how hopeless he is!. 

APC made history by having 4 chairmen in 24 hours; the courts were issuing  injunctions right left and center while Obaseki and  to s less extent, Iyamu  climbed the tree from the top. And you call it a democracy?

Anyway, it is not yet over but Oshiomhole has finished himself. In an effort to deal with Obaseki, he FINISHED himself!  That is  what happens when ordinary people start playing god.  That is what happens when people wear the perquisites in their forehead ( rather than behind)such that life becomes meaningless when it falls off.  As for the September election, I can only prophesy that one party must win. Yes; there is no way two of them can win!. May be then, I will still make available my $1.8m champaign for the final celebration. And for Obaseki, this is just the end of the beginning and he should learn from the travails of his master

- Ik Muo, PhD. Department of Business Administration, OOU, Ago-Iwoye. 08033026625